McCabe sues Justice, FBI for materials related to his firing

Former FBI deputy director was fired in March

Former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe testifies before a House Appropriations subcommittee meeting on the FBI's budget requests for FY2018 on June 21, 2017, in Washington, D.C.

(CNN) - Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is suing the Justice Department, the department's inspector general and the FBI for materials related to his firing.

Attorneys for McCabe filed a federal lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act on Tuesday for access to a variety of documents, including the Inspector General's Manual and other policy documents used by the Justice Department to justify his termination.

Related Content

"Defendants have deprived Plaintiff of the opportunity he should have had to protect and to advance the legal rights and interests of Mr. McCabe," David L. Snyder, a lawyer for McCabe, wrote in the lawsuit.

McCabe was fired from the FBI in March less than two days shy of his retirement after a tumultuous final months of service.

During the 2016 campaign, then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump latched on to a report that McCabe's wife accepted $467,000 from the political action committee of then-Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Clinton family ally, during her failed bid for state Senate in 2015.

Though McCabe was not promoted to deputy director at the FBI until months after his wife lost the race, Trump continues to assert on Twitter that McCabe had a conflict of interest in later overseeing the FBI's investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server, given the donations to his wife.

McCabe's legal team has been working on a civil lawsuit related to his firing since March, but has not yet filed it.

Copyright 2018 by CNN NewSource. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.